The route begins at the Oklahoma state line as a continuation of OK-1 and runs west to Highway 27 at Washita.

From there, Highway 88 continues east for 24 miles (39 km) parallelling the Ouachita River and passing through the communities of Ink, Cherry Hill, Pine Ridge and Oden before intersecting U.S. Route 270 (US 270) at Pencil Bluff.

It runs about 3 miles and has an intersection with the US 70-270 bypass of Hot Springs along its route.

A second segment of Highway 88 begins at an intersection with Highway 35 in Benton, runs for a few blocks on Military Road (a former route of US 67-70 and US 70C/I-30 BL), then runs east approximately 2+1⁄2 miles as Alcoa Boulevard, with state maintenance ending at Benton Parkway.

Highway 88 begins at U.S. Route 79 (US 79) at Altheimer and runs 24 miles (39 km) south and east passing through the communities of Cornerstone, Sweden, and Swan Lake before ending at Highway 11 at Reydell.